president obama says he remains optimistic, but he says no bargain could be reached in congress, then congress must vote on his back up plan to block taxes for anybody making less than $250,000 a year. chief congressional correspondent mike emmanuel has more. mike, you just got new details 23r* mitch mcconnell. what are they? >> that's right. discussions have been taking place all day. both sides have been trading paper, ideas and that talks continue. we understand legislative staff will continue working into this evening. meanwhile, huer is a fair and balanced look at where things stand. >> i do think that something will happen over the next few days relative to the revenue piece. hopefully we can rescue most americans from a tax increase. but what we haven't dealt with again is the spending component. jay we just can't afford -- >> we just can't afford a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy. keeping it that way means folks you sent to washington have to do their jobs. the housing market is healing, but that could stall as folks are seeing smaller paychecks. >> with time r